curious to see if anyone knows why SirriusXM NavTraffic has such little coverage - I suspect it is more of SirriusXM's side rather than our Nav maps or hardware. Just want to make sure that if I upgrade my maps, that I could get more coverage.

Would seem simple for SirriusXM to simply get their traffic feed from Google maps...

thanks!

 

Nobody that I know of has better traffic info than Google Maps. It's amazing how they do it. Everyone who runs Google Maps Navigation shares in the info gathering, and Google can thus determine where traffic issues are. They know when 40 users are crawling at 8 mph on a highway, and then can make that section of the map red.

I just use Google Maps for my traffic info. I'd love to see this data integrated into other databases...but I don't know if Google restricts this via licensing. In fact, I wouldn't mind if my in dash nav would get the data from my phone instead of from SiriusXM, but then, that would cut them out of the money.

 

Can't really answer your question on the limited availability but I can comment on the overall low value of having it. I drove my daily commute from San Jose to Berkeley and NavTraffic continuously underestimated the travel time by 30-60 minutes. It was so worthless that I moved on to other sources (Google, Waze) that proved to be much better and cost less.

 

I thought about getting this service but decided against it as there are other options that cost less and also because Atlanta traffic is ALWAYS messed up beyond reason.

Back to you, OP... the traffic service is allegedly available on a somewhat limited basis. I am sure that having the most updated set of maps is somewhat requisite, but even if your maps are completely up to date, there is a chance you won't be able to use SXM Nav traffic. If you are not in one of the markets that Sirius claims to service, you will not receive traffic details. From the coverage map as of 2/2/15, it seems that there are about 130 serviceable areas:

SiriusXM Traffic Market Coverage - SiriusXM Radio

My advice is to use a bit of data from your phone and use Waze or another smart phone app. No, it won't look as integrated as running it off of your car, but it will cost less than the price of possibly pointless navigation updates or even the cost of SXM traffic probably.

 

thanks for the replies everyone... I was able to negotiate with SiriusXm to get Nav traffic at half the cost (so $2/month is not bad). however, for me, it's only limited to just 1 road (a major beltway).

just wish that it would be more comprehensive. I plan on telling them that unless they increase the availability, then I will terminate my contract at the end of this year.

sure, they may not care about my $2/month, but I think that if they get enough requests, they may consider increasing their market coverage.

 

I had a Q50 loaner recently, and I noticed that Nav Traffic info covered certain roads that were not available on my G. I wasn't sure why, but reading through this thread I now guess this is because I've never updated my maps? Guess I'll add that to my list.

 

reviving this....

I just had the exact same experience, CRiME.... so perhaps the issue is more related to either the maps or the hardware.

curious to see if anyone updated their maps recently, now have traffic showing? if so, then I'll spend the extra $80 to update my maps.... too bad, I recall having a flyer where it cost only $50... oh well....

 

Why not use your phones maps with traffic?!

 

I do not like to have to mess with my phone while driving - very distracting. my phone automatically connects to my car via bluetooth (along with my watch), so making calls is seamless. plus, since the navigation is already there, why not use it?

 

^^^this, i also don't want to fiddle with phone mount so had a thread about mirroring phone to nav screen but apparently that ain't gonna happen, so trying to find solution as well....xm traffic is just too limited , only gives main highways here and some incidents pop up once I'm already there or committed to x section of highway and then notified , so the price ain't I ght bob...will keep looking for options on what and how to do this for nav screen , it seems with today's tech, we would have some economically suitable solution and not have to spend major dough....